Onvo will see its first batch of over 100 stores open on September 1, covering 55 cities, as the official launch of its first model, the L60, nears.

Nio (NYSE: NIO) sub-brand Onvo will see its first stores open on September 1, with the launch of its first model, the L60, just around the corner.

More than 100 Onvo stores open on the same day on September 1, covering 55 cities in China, Onvo announced today on Weibo.

“On September 1, the first stores across the country will open and we invite you to check out the Onvo L60,” a poster reads.

Nio officially launched the Onvo brand on May 15, which is a sub-brand internally codenamed Alps, targeting the mass market. The electric vehicle (EV) maker also has a sub-brand internally codenamed Firefly, targeting the lower-priced market.

The Onvo L60 made its debut on May 15 and became available for pre-order at a pre-sale price of RMB 219,900 ($30,840) including the battery, exactly RMB 30,000 below the current starting price of the Tesla Model Y in China.

Onvo is expected to allow customers to purchase the L60 with just the body and lease the battery, further lowering the barrier to purchase, similar to what the Nio brand does.

The model would officially go on sale in late September, and deliveries would begin about a week after the launch, at the end of September, Onvo president Ai Tiecheng said in a July 25 video live stream.

The first production vehicle of the Onvo L60 rolled off the assembly line at Nio's F2 factory in Hefei NeoPark, Anhui province, on August 15, and Ai delivered the vehicle to Xia Qinghua, who heads Onvo's user operations and service operations.

Xia began a planned 36-day test the same day he got his L60, which he will drive 20,000 kilometers in China.

The Onvo L60 is built on a 900 V high-voltage architecture, where higher voltage results in higher energy efficiency.

The model is 92.3 percent CLTC efficient and has the world's lowest wind resistance of any production SUV at 0.229 Cd, allowing it to consume just 12.1 kWh per 100 kilometers, Onvo has said.

The standard-range version of the model is powered by a 60.6-kWh battery from BYD and has a CLTC range of 555 kilometers. Its long-range version has a CLTC range of over 730 kilometers.

The Onvo L60 is a mid-size SUV with a length, width and height of 4,828 mm, 1,930 mm and 1,616 mm respectively and a wheelbase of 2,950 mm.

For comparison, the Tesla Model Y has a length, width, and height of 4,750 mm, 1,921 mm, and 1,624 mm, respectively, and a wheelbase of 2,890 mm.

($1 = RMB 7.1308)

Nio Onvo sees 1st production car of L60 roll off line, interior unveiled